BLOOD

Judy Watson (AUS)

blood is an installation of vials of blood with their categories of art world types challenging notions of classification of blood that was applied to Aboriginal people in Australia. Watson’s doctor took the blood of curator, registrar, writer, artist, gallery dealer… and in return Watson gave each donor and the extractor of the blood an artwork, an exchange of fluids for creative expression.

Some of Watson’s family and other Indigenous peoples were marginalised, taken away from their families and country, judged, denied their rights and wages, categorised, and abused because of their perceived blood quantum or percentage of their racial status by colonisers.

Judy Watson was born in 1959 in Mundubbera, Queensland, Australia. Watson’s matrilineal family is from Waanyi country in Northwest Queensland and her oeuvre – which includes painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and video – is inspired by Aboriginal history and culture. It is often concerned with collective memory and uses archival documents to unveil institutionalised discrimination against Aboriginal people.